Among the dead were three Israeli tourists who presumably were the targets of the attack, and 10 Kenyans, mostly members of a dance troupe.

A suicide bombing is a bomb attack on people or property, committed by a person who knows the explosion will cause his or her own death in addition to the attacks primary purpose (see suicide, suicide weapons).

On November 28, 2002, at the same time that the Kenyan hotel bombing occurred, an Arkia Boeing 757 was narrowly missed by two anti-aircraft missiles.

It was the third attack on a Western target in Pakistan since March and prompted the U.S. government to close other diplomatic outposts in the country.

A Pakistani employee in the consulate's canteen, who was serving tea to one of the policemen when the bomb exploded, was in critical condition and not expected to live, U.S. Consul General John Bauman said.

U.S. officials said the attack was likely the work of extremists angry at both the United States and Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, for siding with the United States after Sept. 11 and abandoning support for Afghanistan's ruling Taliban.

Pakistani police intensified their investigation yesterday into a devastating bomb attack on the US consulate in Karachi which killed 10 people and injured more than 50, a spokesman said.

Meraj told police that her instructor had taken the three women to a traffic police office in southern Karachi to receive their licences and that they were returning to the institute when they become victims of the blast.

The United States condemned the attack and said the US embassy and American Centre in Islamabad, as well as the consulates in Lahore and Peshawar, would be closed to the public at least through the weekend.

KARACHI, Pakistan (CNN) -- A previously unknown militant group called "Al-Qanoon" claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed 10 people Friday at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi and warned the attack was just "the beginning."

The attack targeted the U.S. consulate where American-born al Qaeda suspect Jose Padilla applied for a new passport in February, according to the State Department.

In Washington, a senior State Department official said the Bush administration suspects the attack was carried out by al Qaeda because of its resemblance to the bombing of a Karachi bus in May. That attack killed 14 people, including 11 French nationals.

KARACHI, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suicide car bomber is believed responsible for an explosion outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan that has killed at least eight people and injured at least 40 others.

The area surrounding the consulate is heavily guarded and Pakistani authorities recently reopened the road in front of the building, which had been closed for security reasons.

Karachi is also where Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and later killed earlier this year.

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP)  A suicide driver slammed his explosives-packed vehicle into a concrete barrier in front of the U.S. consulate Friday, setting off a huge explosion that killed 11 people and injured 45.

The message said the attack was a "preview with more to follow" and was part of a holy war against the United States and its "puppet ally," the Pakistani government.

Karachi was also where Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted and slain in January while working on a story about Islamic militants.

Eight people were killed in a powerful car bomb attack on the US consulate in the southern port city of Karachi, and dozens were injured including six consulate staff, officials said.

Officials at Karachi's Jinnah Hospital said 26 people injured in the blast had been admitted for treatment and were in a serious condition.

Police officers at the scene said the vehicle used in the attack was a small, high-roofed Suzuki van which had been travelling along the same road that the consulate is situated on.

www.freerepublic.com /focus/f-news/699958/posts (886 words)

CBC News:Pakistan arrests 9 suspects in attack on U.S. Consulate(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-07)

KARACHI - Police in Pakistan have arrested nine suspected Islamic militants in connection with a suicide bombing at a U.S. Consulate in 2002 and an attack on a hotel.

The nine suspects are accused of involvement in the suicide bombing at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi in June 2002 that killed 12 Pakistanis.

The attack outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi in May 2002 killed 11 French technicians and three Pakistanis.

www.cbc.ca /stories/2004/04/06/pakistan040406 (201 words)

Police recover three bodies in Macedonian consulate; fear killings were retaliatory(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-07)

Three bodies, their feet and hands bound and their throats cut, were recovered Thursday from the rubble of the Karachi offices of the honorary consul of Macedonia, which was destroyed in an overnight explosion.

Police are investigating the possibility that the execution-style killings and subsequent explosion at the Macedonian consul office may have been in retaliation for the killing of seven Pakistanis in Macedonia in March.

Doctors at Karachi's Jinnah Medical Center who performed autopsies on the victims said their hands and legs were tied, their mouths gagged and their throats slit.

The bomb left a crater several feet deep outside the consulate and smashed huge cement blocks which were placed around the building to slow traffic.

In January, U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi and later killed, and then in March a man walked into a Protestant church in Islamabad lobbing grenades.

Militant groups were further angered when Musharraf launched a crackdown on them in January after a bloody attack on the Indian parliament, blamed by New Delhi on Pakistan-based militants, which took the two countries to the brink of war.

KARACHI, Pakistan, Jun 27, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Pakistani police and FBI agents arrested eight people, including three Palestinians and two Sudanese, as part of the investigation into the deadly bombings at the U.S. Consulate and a hotel in southern Pakistan, police said Thursday.

The detainees were the latest foreigners apprehended in connection with the attacks, which officials suspect were the work of Islamic militants possibly aided by al-Qaida.

Pakistani police, with the help of the FBI, are investigating whether the attacks were linked, and if there is a connection to the kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and the March 17 grenade attack on a church which killed four people, including two Americans.

KARACHI, PAKISTAN - Pakistani officials found an unexploded bomb in a van parked next to the U.S. consulate in Karachi Monday, just two days before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to visit the country.

The consulate closed for the day after the bomb was discovered, between 7 and 8 a.m.

Islamic extremists are believed responsible for two similar attacks in 2002.

KARACHI, Pakistan, March 15 -- The U.S. Consulate in Karachi, which has been the target of two terrorist strikes over the past two years, narrowly escaped a third attack Monday morning when police defused a large bomb inside a van parked just outside the heavily guarded facility.

"The U.S. Consulate is the prime target for al Qaeda remnants and desperate jihadis in Karachi," the official said.

The consulate had not yet opened for business when the bomb was discovered, and the building closest to the van is largely unused.

An attack on the US consulate in Karachi was thwarted yesterday when a bomb was discovered in a van parked next to the building two days before a visit to the country by Colin Powell, the US secretary of state.

The US consulate in Karachi is a prime target for terrorists; in June 2002 a dozen people were killed when a car bomb exploded outside it.

The opening one-day match in Karachi was played without incident at the weekend, but the Indians have a clause allowing the team to abandon the tour in the event of violence in Pakistan.

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP)  Explosives experts on Monday defused a bomb in a van parked next to the heavily guarded U.S. Consulate in this southern Pakistani city less than five minutes before it was to explode.

Hundreds of policemen and paramilitary troops cordoned off the consulate, on a main road in an upscale neighborhood of Karachi, and checked the area for additional explosives.

A police investigator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the same type of van was used in the June 2002 bombing, leading him to believe that the same group could be responsible.

October 18, 2002 (B): "The massive mothballed Dabhol power project that bankrupt US energy company Enron Corp. built in western India could be running within a year, with a long-standing dispute over power charges close to being renegotiated, a government official said." Dabhol is the largest foreign investment project in India's history.

November 1, 2002: Some of the 9/11 victims' relatives hold a rally at the US Capitol to protest what they fear are plans by the Bush administration to delay or block their lawsuit against prominent Saudi individuals for an alleged role in financing al-Qaeda (see August 15, 2002).

November 5, 2002: The New York Times reports that the official Pentagon study assessing the effect of assess the 9/11 attack's effect on the Pentagon was completed in July 2002 but has not been released, and may never be released.

They argue that the relocation is intended to lessen the problems faced by Karachi residents, who often have to contend with a busy thoroughfare and a large public park in front of the consulate being shut down because of threats to the American mission.

Karachi’s citizens have often complained about the security pickets at both ends of the busy roads in front of the consulate and the consul general’s residence, which do not allow any public transport, certain types of cars and motorbikes to enter the streets.

The current consulate stands on about two acres of land, while the proposed new site is about eight to 10 times larger.